​My Dad, Vince, Penny and Miya were up last weekend. Allan was around for a lot of the time. Weather was hot but cool enough at night. 

• Watered a lot. All around the house and over and up the hill to all the old fruit trees. 
• My Dad cut the felled apricot and left as much as he could. Allan, Vince and he worked on trimming it as best as possible. Time will tell how it recovers but it has a fighting chance. 
• In and among the apricot tree was an established grape vine. Vince and my dad worked to untangle and re-thread the grape vine along the stair railings and tie them. 
• The Mr. Pepper experiment has come to an end and there is a lot to finish on the pump house. After many, many reminders to come and pick up his equipment, he is gone and never to return. There is a lot of nails, staples, and random construction debris trash all over and we have been picking up as we find it. Allan will be using his magnetic roller to pick up what he can but there is a lot of non-metalic items to pick up. This will most likely be a work weekend project. Anyway, he is gone and never to return. 
• My Dad and Allan assessed the state of the "finished" pump house and made a long list of items to be completed. Allan has been given a list of items to complete to make the pump house "whole" and to finish up items that Allan knows that need to be completed - correctly. My Dad also has a list of items to work on so we'll see how much they can complete. 
• There is brush starting to grow around the denuded area surrounding the pump house. Some of it is OK but some needs to be dealt with (e.g. tar weeds, etc.). Allan might be able to do some smoothing work with his tractor. He is evaluating. 
• Solar System: 
  • The area where all the hand tools lived has been cleared out in preparation for the electrical connection work at the existing electrical panel. All items from this area have been placed in the wood shed, temporarily. 
  • The designated wall where the solar charging system is to be located has been cleared. The old shelving is piled outside the garage and needs to be hauled away. It is full of nails, FYI. This wall is where the charging equipment will be installed. After that, we will evaluate to determine what shelving can be installed on the wall in any space not occupied by the solar charging equipment. All items from that wall have been temporarily relocated to the front of the garage as there is currently room since the green jeep is at Allan's for mechanical work. 
  • We confirmed the Board's preference for the electrical conduit route to go up the corner of the garage where the garage meets the stone wall (on wall where bathroom window is located).
  • North Bay Solar Electric has the project scheduled for mid-August. Exact dates to confirmed soon. 
• Pumped for a couple hours. Pump is working well now and the timer is installed. 
• Found yet another leak in the water line (see attached video-below) above the old pool area. Patched that as our last project. Our old water line is really Swiss cheese. FYI, there is good news on the approval of the waterline/water system proposal. More on that in a separate email. 
• The front door to the main room was locked when my Dad arrived. After two hours attempting to get in, he contacted Allan to assist and the two of them had to remove the center molding and cut the lever to open the door. It turns out that the small locking mechanism on the level was engaged when it was last closed. My Dad reinstalled the central molding and Allan is going to repaint the door. 
• My Dad took the lever/handle home and will weld the lever back together. 
• I measured all the heights, depths, and widths for new refrigerator and stove. Spoke to Al about where he got his, delivery, etc. Our current fridge is really struggling to keep cool, FYI. It is almost to the point where the freezer is most effective. As I mentioned at our board meeting, we need to move soon on replacing items we plan on replacing (table, lawn mower, Rubbermaid shed, etc.). Again, more on this as it relates to insurance stuff. 
• I dumped the "root killer" in the first-floor toilet when we left. This should be done every couple years. 

That's all for now. I'll be in touch later this week about all things Shang! 
Peter W.